About the website

Remember December 2009? Keith Kemplin at a Chuckanut trail junction. Click to enlarge

This website is dedicated to XC skiing in the Chuckanuts and western foothills of Whatcom and Skagit County.

Why “CHUCKANUT” cross country ski? In part, because I’m a geologist. I started this as a paeon to rare but wonderful XC skiing in the Chuckanut Mountains proper, south of Bellingham and to the west of I-5. It quickly expanded to include higher foothills further east. One thing that ties most of these trips together (so far) is the Chuckanut Formation- a geologic unit consisting of lithified Eocene flood plain deposits: sandstone, shale, conglomerate, coal. If you want to read more about that, go to this page at the Northwest Geology Field Trips website.

LA NINA is HERE, so skiing could be great in the winter of 2011-12. Post your XC skiing trail reports and photos to this blog, or send your links to Flickr or other online photo pages.

Send reports and pictures to this email address

This blog is managed by Dave Tucker, Bellingham, Washington. Thanks to the other folks who have contributed routes and information.

Google Earth image- the Western Foothills. Click to view.

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Responses

Hi there, Ive just moved back to Bellingham after a couple of years in Alaska and am so excited to get skiing when the snow comes. Is there a group of skiers who get together for these backyard ski adventures or is it a solo outing? Are you all members of the nooksack nordic club?

Hi, and welcome back! Thanks for writing. No we aren’t anything formal. However there is a core group of people who get out XC skiing frequently when we have a good snowy winter. Someitmes people post an upcoming trip or solicit others to join them and put together a trip. Best thing is to subscribe to this blog via email so you can find out who’s going where, or propose your own outing. Some readers are probably members of Nooksack Nordic, but not all.
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